One of the most common sports-related injuries today is dislocated joints. Though I’ve never experienced such an injury, those who have tell me it is very painful and that it renders the affected limb useless until the dislocation can be corrected. The repair is usually rather quick, though not painless. It can be made tolerable by the appropriate use of pain-killers, following which is a brief healing process, and then the body begins to function normally again.
Even the Scriptures equate bones being out of joint with pain and uselessness. “Confidence in an unfaithful man in time of trouble is like…a foot out of joint” (Prov. 25:19). Jacob limped because his thigh was “out of joint” (or “dislocated,” Darby, Gen. 32:25); and we have described one aspect of the agony of crucifixion in the statement, “all My bones are out of joint” (Ps. 22:14).
Just as a shoulder or elbow can become dislocated, believers can absent themselves from the local body of the Lord’s people. It often is over some inconsequential detail such as the setting of the thermostat, the failure of some brother or sister to properly greet the offended party, some personality clash with another believer, or the momentary attraction of some outside interest (sports being near the top of the list). May I suggest that this type of believer is a dislocated saint: of no value or use to the local church, sitting in misery, alone spiritually, when the remedy could be applied rather quickly and the “dislocated member” returned to usefulness again.
God’s Word uses terms such as: “gathering together unto Him,” “when ye come together,” “unto Him shall the gathering of the people be,” “gathered together in My name,” etc., to describe the essence of the local church. There is no place in Scripture for a “Lone Ranger” Christian. We all need each other! We are assembled together, builded together, followers together, gathered together, helping together, joined together, knit together, laborers together, planted together. We strive together and are workers together. Do you get the picture? He has made us one in Christ; we are simply asked to keep that unity (Eph. 4:3). There is to be a oneness, a unity, a togetherness that should characterize God’s people in a totally unique way. “From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love” (Eph. 4:16).
The writer to the Hebrews admonished: “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another….” (10:25). Remember Thomas was not with the little company of eleven cowering behind locked doors when Jesus appeared in their midst. As a result, Thomas missed seeing the Saviour and hearing His “peace be unto you”–the very things Thomas needed the most. “Thou shalt be missed, because thy seat will be empty” (1 Sam. 20:18).
If your spiritual life seems a bit disjointed, your usefulness can be restored very quickly and easily. The remedy for dislocated saints? “Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life” (Jude 21).